Massachusetts governor and wannabes debate pharma gift ban

Thu, 2010-10-07 12:36

The state of Massachusetts (where I just so happen to live) has one of the strictest policies of any state around the interactions between healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies. Earlier this week MassBio hosted the 2010 Gubernatorial Candidates Forum, featuring candidates Charlie Baker, Tim Cahill and Governor Deval Patrick, who debated the Mass. gift ban, among other topics. Here's the gift ban clip:

It sounds like all three -- including Governor Patrick, who backed the ban initially -- think it needs to be either modified or outright removed. Then again, candidates say all kinds of things during an election cycle, and it can vary depending on the audience. We'll have to wait and see what happens with this one, but if it did get weakened or eliminated, it would be the first step backward in pharma-HCP-interaction regulation I've heard of in recent years.